Malithi Wanniarachchi Kankanamge

PhD Student in Computer Science (Spring 2024-Current) [co-advising with Dr. Ning Yang]

School of Computing, Southern Illinois University Carbondale

Ph.D. Student in Computer Science, Southern Illinois University Carbondale
M.S. in Computer Science, University of Sri Jayewardenepura
B.S. in Physical Science, University of Sri Jayewardenepura

Research Interests: Cybersecurity, Language Models, Generative AI, Cyber-Physical Systems.

Bio: Malithi Mithsara is pursuing a Ph.D. at Southern Illinois University Carbondale and serves as a Graduate Teaching Assistant in the School of Computing. She teaches operating systems and web application development. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Physical Science and Master of Computer Science from the University of Sri Jayewardenepura in Sri Lanka. With five years of teaching experience and one year as a research assistant, she has expertise in machine learning, neural networks, and computer security. She is proficient in Python, Java, PHP, C, C++, Android application development, MySQL, SQL (WAMP Server, XAMPP), and Oracle. Her research interests lie in the intersection of cyber-physical systems, large and small language models, and cybersecurity.

Awards:

Travel Award, IEEE-EMBS International Conference on Body Sensor Networks (IEEE BSN 2024)
Travel and Conference Award, The Graduate and Professional Student Council, SIU, 2024.

Publications:

Malithi Wanniarachchi Kankanamge, Nick McKenna, Santiago Carmona, Syed Mhamudul Hasan, Abdur R Shahid, Ahmed Imteaj, "Digital Forensic Investigation of the ChatGPT Windows Application", arXiv preprint arXiv:2505.23938
Malithi Wanniarachchi Kankanamge, Abdur R. Shahid, Ning Yang, S M Jamil Uddin, Rahul Biswas, "Development of a fall detection and safety communication system using small language models", In the 42nd International Symposium on Automation and Robotics in Construction (ISARC 2025)
Mohd. Farhan Israk Soumik, W.K.M Mithsara, Abdur Rahman Bin Shahid, Ahmed Imteaj, "Exploring Audio Editing Features as User-Centric Privacy Defenses Against Emotion Inference Attacks", The Sixth AAAI-25 Workshop on Privacy-Preserving Artificial Intelligence (PPAI-AAAI 2025)
Malithi Wanniarachchi Kankanamge, Abdur R. Shahid, Ning Yang, "Poster: Leveraging Large Language Models for Zero-Shot Detection and Mitigation of Data Poisoning in Wearable AI Systems", NeurIPS workshop on GenAI for Health: Potential, Trust and Policy Compliance (GenAI-NeurIPS 2024)
Malithi Wanniarachchi Kankanamge, Abdur R. Shahid, and Ning Yang, “Detection of Poisoning Attacks in Human Activity Recognition using Large Language Models”, In The IEEE-EMBS International Conference on Body Sensor Networks (IEEE BSN) 2024. (Poster Publication).
Malithi Wanniarachchi Kankanamge, Abdur R. Shahid, Ning Yang, "Zero-Shot Detection and Sanitization of Data Poisoning Attacks in Wearable AI using Large Language Models", 23rd International Conference on Machine Learning and Applications (ICMLA 2024)
Malithi Wanniarachchi Kankanamge, Abdur R. Shahid, Ning Yang, "Intelligent Fall Detection and Emergency Response for Smart Homes Using Language Models", 23rd International Conference on Machine Learning and Applications (ICMLA 2024)
Abdur R. Shahid, Syed Mhamudul Hasan, Malithi Wanniarachchi Kankanamge, Md Zarif Hossain, Ahmed Imteaj, "WatchOverGPT: A Framework for Real-Time Crime Detection and Response Using Wearable Camera and Large Language Model (LLM)", 48th IEEE International Conference on Computers, Software, and Applications (COMPSAC 2024)
Malithi Wanniarachchi Kankanamge, Syed Mhamudul Hasan, Abdur R. Shahid, Ning Yang, "Large Language Model Integrated Healthcare Cyber-Physical Systems Architecture", 48th IEEE International Conference on Computers, Software, and Applications (COMPSAC 2024)

Secure and Trustworthy Intelligent Systems (SHIELD) Lab

SIU School of Computing

EGRA-409D
1230 Lincoln Dr, Carbondale, IL 62901